VocApp-Browse/Navigation

View Navigation

Efficient navigation of the various views of the vocabulary can increase the effectiveness of a person seeking or browsing for a particular concept. This section discusses some of the navigation aids that are available in this application.

Search Capability

At present (September 2007) there is no general search capability provided to find concepts, domains or value sets by searching on names or codes. However, such search capability is supported in the widgets used to build a proposal, and will, over time be extended to more general use.

Tree View Navigation with Keyboard

A tree view control is used to display hierarchical structures in a form that allows expanding or collapsing individual branches of the tree. These controls are used in both the Value Set Navigator and in the Concept Domain viewer. Although the mouse click techniques for working through such a tree are obvious, keyboard mediated navigation can be quite efficient, particularly "arrow key" navigation and jumping to a letter sequence.

Key Navigation in a Tree View

Within the context of a tree view, the four Arrow keys and the space bar have the following effect:

• ↓ (down arrow)

  Moves the selection down one row in the tree regardless of whether the row below is deeper or shallower in the hierarchy than the current row. This key will not expand a branch that is collapsed (shown with + in front of it).

• ↑ (up arrow)

  Moves the selection up one row in the tree regardless of whether the row above is deeper or shallower in the hierarchy than the current row.

• → (right arrow)

  • If the current row is a closed branch (+ in front of it), the branch will be expanded (opened) and the selection will remain on the branch where it started.
  • If the current row is an open branch (- in front of it), the selection will move down to the next row.
  • If the current row is a leaf term, (neither + nor - in front) no change will occur.

• ← (left arrow)

  • If the current row is an open branch (- in front of it), the branch will be collapsed (closed) and the selection will remain on the branch where it started.
  • If the current row is a closed branch (+ in front of it) or a leaf term (neither + nor - in front) the selection will jump up to the branch that is the parent of the selection.

• · (space bar)

  The tree view will scroll horizontally to place the text for the current row at the left edge of the control.